Massively Networked

SXSW 2010: Telepathy, Neuroscience and Marketing

Telekinesis and telepathy are here. Check out the video (link - not the video embedded above) of the monkey getting food by controlling a robotic arm with only its thoughts. DARPA’s 2010 budget includes a line item for the Silent Talk project, which “will allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals. The brain generates word-specific signals prior to sending electrical impulses to the vocal cords. These signals of “intended speech” will be analyzed and translated into distinct words, allowing covert person-to-person communication.” Basically, DARPA’s talking telepathic soldiers. Scientific American jouralist Christie Nicholson brought up both examples in her presentation "Is the Brain the Ultimate Computer Interface?"

Nicholson’s presentation may raise ethical issues that the vast majority of the world’s population remains unaware of. In the last few years, she reports, the rate of progress in working brain-computer interfaces has been exponential. The latest generation of brain to computer interfaces includes planting electrodes with growth hormone into the brain so that neurons begin to accept them as part of the living flesh. A computer chip was developed and successfully replaced a rat’s hippocampus – allowing researchers to directly upload “instructions” that were translated into physical commands much like the rat’s original hippocampus would. Optogenetics is a relatively new science that allows researchers to control a mouse’s brain through light via a light receptor implant.

All this is possible because 1) the brain is electric and 2) the brain is plastic. Electric impulses can be translated into complex algorithms and modified. Neurons can rewire themselves based on need – e.g., if the visual cortex is damaged, the aural part of the brain can rewire itself to compensate.

Challenges remain to creating a direct port into the brain for uploading instructions ala Neo learning kung fu in The Matrix. Much of thought is contextually relevant and temporally variable, so creating a “genome project for the brain,” decoding all its functions and translating into an algorithm may be quite complex. However, it was not long ago when the Genome Project seemed impossible until a leap of insight changed that reality. We already have devices on the market that control games via thoughts. Mindscape by Mattel is one. It doesn’t take much to imagine the trajectory from a EEG headset device like Mindscape’s toward increased comfort with more direct user interfaces between technology and biology. Quadriplegic Matt Nagle is an early example of this potential with his use of the BrainGate technology

Under these scenarios, the individual would either have to consent or be coerced to adopt brain-computer interface technology. Still, as a marketer myself, I am fully aware of the power of marketing as a coercive force. When presented with the upside of telepathy, it’s an open question whether the downside implications will be addressed or ignored.

SXSW 2010: Tips for surviving the zombie apocalypse (and delivering a great presentation)

Interaction/UX designer Eris Stassi spun an art-and-science double helix of a story about the future of user interfaces during her presentation, A Touchy History of the Future. In the description she said she’d “explore some progressive interaction models that go beyond touch and into movement, infrared, wearable computing, sound, ambient data to really give us an idea on what our immersive interactive future may hold.” Technology is and always has been about transforming human experience – from fire breaking protein molecules in raw meat, making it more palatable, to contact lenses that augment our vision. Now that the user interfaces between technology and biology are beginning to approach frictionlessness, the possibility of deciding what that experience will be - by developing those user interfaces purposefully - is within reach.

Stassi gave several examples of current biotech user interfaces like nanotech contact lenses that detect glucose levels to warn diabetics when they’re in danger, UIs that use the natural resonance of flesh and bones to manipulate data with sound, brainwave-operated computers and RFID tags that can interact with their environment.

So what about the zombies? The brilliant bit about Stassi’s presentation was enveloping the science and data about progressive UIs in its own immersive environment of the zombie apocalypse. She developed a story “user interface” between the technological facts and the minds of attendees by asking how best to design a UI for a jetpack, say, that would ensure your escape from brain-eating zombies.

To survive the zombie apocalypse, you would want a solution that the zombies themselves couldn’t master. Since zombies have motor skills, a joystick-operated jetpack would not do. Zombies, however, do not have brains so a brain-wave operated jetpack would be a good choice if you would like to increase your chance of avoiding zombies eating your brains. Once you’re aware of what experience you would like to create – in this case surviving zombie apocalypse – you can make intelligent choices about how you will build your user interface.

Each of the progressive UIs Stassi described were brought to life within this alternate reality scenario. Intentionally creating a “user interface” between what she was communicating and who she was communicating to through an alternate reality scenario made her point a meta-point. Only at SXSWi could one learn tips for both surviving a zombie apocalypse and for delivering a great presentation.

SXSW 2010: We are all bees

We’re all bees now, apparently.  Hive mind may no longer be a metaphor but a gadget-mediated reality when we all peer into Foursquare apps to see which locations are trending and who is setting the trend so we can be sure to fly off to where the (usually) King Bee is hanging out. When we arrive, we’ll check in and report to the others our location – signaling we’re in the know by Tweet name-dropping “w/ @briansolis @scobelizer”.  Congratulations – you’ve unlocked your Super Swarm badge at The Speakeasy.

Foursquare debuted at last year’s SXSW capturing interest among those who saw the potential of a location-based service (LBS), especially given the mass adoption of the iPhone with its geolocation features. Gowalla followed shortly thereafter, offering a similar ability to check in your location, share tips and get stuff: points for showing up, rewards for being a loyal visitor and cred for taking your game to the next level.

Foursquare and Gowalla are racing to gain the greatest market share in this critical early stage. Perhaps moreso than any other product or service, an LBS in the social space is only as valuable to its users as the numbers of their friends using it. I can own a Mac or PC or both because each may serve a different purpose – one I tend to use for multimedia and one I use for business. Even with social services like MySpace and Facebook there can be a reason to engage with both – one I use to connect with my musician friends and the other I keep for family and work friends. With LBSs however, I can only be in one place at a time so it doesn’t add any value to be using two services. It will be interesting to see if Gowalla can overcome Foursquare’s first-mover advantage or if it gets assimilated.

5 Trends shaping the emerging interactive marketplace

The interactive marketplace is no doubt beginning its next round up the spiral of change. Here are 5 trends that very likely could create a game-changing environment for business - and some that are already starting to do so.

1. The internet leaving the internet

Mobile devices (smartphones, wearable tech), programmable tags (QR, RFID), information embedded within physical environments (visual information overlays, projected displays, smart paper) image recognition (visual search, image-driven applications) and gestural user interfaces are examples of technologies that allow us to access the Web unimpeded by bulky machinery.

Potential impact: The trend toward pervasive and transparent access will take expectations about instantaneous access to time-and-situation-relevant information to a whole new level. Successful companies will do more than simply maintain an up-to-date website and participate in social media.

Timeline: Fast.

If true: Businesses that can find innovative ways to provide individualized, situation-dependent, useful (and enjoyable) information will have the advantage.

2. The infosphere is "learning" at an increasingly rapid pace

Mass adoption of social media (Twitter, Facebook, et al), physical objects that communicate location and status - among other communicants - feed an increasingly fat stream of data into the infosphere. Couple that with improved tools for data mining, semantic analysis and data visualization and you enable the capacity for pattern recognition and learning at an increasingly rapid pace.

Potential impact: The trend toward being able to access and make sense from vast amounts of information creates an environment that puts those who fail to participate in the infosphere at an (almost pre-) cognitive disadvantage.

Timeline: Fast

If true: Businesses will want to be assimilated into the infosphere in order to understand the rapidly-changing zeitgeist so they can continue to provide desirable, differentiated and relevant products and services to the very person who wants them.

3. Location-aware devices are giving places memories

GPS films give you access to what happened right where you're located now as well as let you add your own creative contribution. Skyhook remembers who or what was where and when via smartphone GPS. Google Latitude can store where you, your friends and family have been for later retrieval. These location-aware devices create accessible layers of memory attached to specific places.

Potential impact: The ability to embed temporal data onto a physical location that can later be retrieved and added to creates an unprecedented depth of field to our experience of physical locations - allowing us to impact others' experience of them as well.

Timeline: Moderate

If true: Leading edge businesses have an opportunity to use the GPS film-like open source platform, for instance, to begin playing with embedding stories onto locations and enabling customers to add their own layers.

4. Formerly "inert" objects are becoming animated, lifelike

Plants twitter, homes know our preferences and needs, and respond accordingly, robots display increasingly naturalistic movements, responses and gestures, machines talk with one another, and cars gently reprimand us if we choose not to take the recommended turn. Recent developments in efficient energy production, quantum computing and nanotechology could push the animation of formerly inert objects to a whole new level quickly - if you believe the enthusiasts.

Potential impact: The ability to interact with intelligent objects in a lifelike way will change our perception of non-animal objects from, say, decor or useful tools to collaborative entities.

Timeline: Moderate to slow

If true: Opportunity for businesses to take advantage of simple tools that can add value to products by making them more usefully interactive. If my product were a "living" thing, what more would it do? What would it communicate? How would it collaborate with its user?

5. Biophysical reality merging with technology

Devices that allow us to control remote objects by merely thinking, nanoscale medical devices, immersive virtual/physical environments and bio-robotics are examples of how the lines between our physical reality and technology are becoming increasingly blurry.

Potential impact: The trend toward blurring the lines between where we stop and where machines start takes expectations of personal agency and what is possible to an entirely new level.

Timeline: Moderate to slow. 

If true: Likely a small niche of early adopters with the rest coming slowly along, if at all. Opportunity for business is perhaps "ain't it cool" toys to raise visibility initially. Too many unknowns to predict longer term opportunity at this point, but a trend to watch.

Whether each of the specific technologies mentioned above catch on remains to be seen. However these play out, we are already moving toward a world where the how, what, when, where and why we interact with information is changing:

How we consume information: Sight, sound & motion - we are moving from a primarily desktop and text interface to a visual, aural and kinetic one.

Where & when we access information: Everywhere & anytime - progressive virtualization is making physical and temporal location less relevant.

Who & what we can transact with: Anyone & anything - personal/commercial distinctions are eroding and internal/external definitions are becoming more fluid.

Why we engage: Transformative experience - we are arguably shifting from material, time-bound goals toward experiential ones that add personal and social value to the commercial mix.

What do you think?

The changing role of media from communication agent to one of transforming experience

Are devices and technology that augment and modify reality - wearable tech, neural implants, biochemical modifications, robotics, among others - training wheels that will spring us (some of us, anyway) beyond a dualistic, materialist view of the world? Maybe. If you've ever lost yourself in a film or projected yourself so fully into your character in Second Life or World of Warcraft that you've temporarily forgotten where you were, think of how much more compellingly real that experience becomes as it pervades your awareness of everyday life and the objects within it. And consider how having the power to craft the world you are perceiving and virtually shape it at will would make your perception of self and object more fluid. See the Life 2.0 video at the end of the earlier lucid dreaming on demand post for one scenario on how this might play out. How does having a great deal of control over our visual, aural and kinetic inputs rewire the brain? As these technologies become increasingly available, identification with the physical body for those who use them becomes more fluid and the role of media changes dramatically.

If you believe that those developments are a long way off, you're not paying attention to how fast things are changing. To go on a trip two years ago I wrote down directions, researched where to go for dinner and entertainment ahead of time, carried a book and magazines, an iPod for music and video and a phone for calls, SMS and emails. Now I only carry an iPhone - oh, and a book for its old-school charm. The iPhone gives me instant access to local information, magazines, movies, music, directions, Twitter, emails, SMS, calls, games, language translation and whatever other functionality I choose to download from the app store. I've learned the gestural UI of finger pinches and flicks to access information so well that I now get slightly annoyed by the WIMP interface on my desktop computer. The rewiring of my brain to accept new behavior and expectations as normal took only a few months. Watch the 2009 TED talk by Juan Enriquez at the end of this post for much more compelling examples of technology coming online right now. Check out the Big Dog in the video (at ~13:00 mark). How quickly will your brain be rewired to accept that you can have some form of personal relationship with a robot when they become sophisticated enough to pass the Turing test? These developments are here. Now.

Media in a world where the distinctions between subject and object, alive and inert, human and machine begin to blur comes to play a very different role than its current one of facilitating communication. Media becomes an agent for transformative experience. That transformation can be positive, negative or somewhere in between depending on the intent of its producer and the use to which the user puts it. If we are headed into a zone where reality becomes less defined by material, physical limitations and can be shaped at will, it's probably wise to practice developing awareness of our intentions sooner rather than later.

Lucid dreaming on demand, anyone?

One more recap from SXSW 2009 before I head back to San Francisco. Thor Muller (Get Satisfaction, Inc.) demonstrated a fictitious product called "ThinkTwice" during his presentation to get the audience thinking about the longer-term impact of what may be relatively near-term developments in human augmentation. His fictitious use case is a thought-provoking adjunct to my post on What happens when marketing gets truly interactive? where I noted the marketplace is beginning to blur the lines between personal and commercial. Muller's hypothetical product blurs the lines between internal and external as well. Welcome to lucid dreaming on demand, people. Question is, who will provide the stuff your dreams are made of?

Muller describes ThinkTwice as made up of a neural implant (a subcutaneous patch maybe) that uses the central nervous system as its network, with a display component surgically implanted in the retina (okay, he said "seared on the eyeball itself"), along with input devices (via physical gestures that translate, say, typed words to the processing unit through muscle memory). He noted that this "rig" would not be such a leap from what we already have. The rig he describes simply eliminates friction between communication media that currently exist.

He makes his point by asking, "How much more likely are you to respond to a letter than an email? To an email than a text message?" The only difference in likelihood is the effort it takes to reply. If the rig were physically incorporated into your body in a way that could be controlled by thought and gesture instead of having to interact with an external device, communication and the manipulation of sensory information could be virtually instantaneous. "We already have telepathy, except with a little bit of friction," he says.

So what might be the impact of the rig? Muller suggests new social norms will arise. Disconnection becomes a luxury. Perhaps there's an "arms race" for information mastery with the ignorance of those out of the loop and unable to keep up creating a big disparity in opportunities for participation. New values will replace old values. Already we're seeing that accuracy of information is less valuable than its availability. Would there be an age of consent? A divide of adoption, say between the "augments" and the "naturals"?

Many of these questions have already come up in other contexts, e.g., computer haves and have-nots, use of steroids and elective plastic surgery - and for the same reasons. We dream of what we might like to know, how athletic we want to be and of how we want to look - and with technology we can make the dream happen (to some extent). Businesses and marketers help shape what's possible - and what's desirable. One difference between the world we're in now, and one of frictionless communication, is that in the latter deliberation vanishes. The world would in some ways become like a lucid dream - except for the added physical component and its limitations. If we're not deliberate about what we want the stuff of our dreams to be made of now, we may drift into a world that fails to deliver what we desire for ourselves and others.

Update: link to Life 2.0 video used in Muller's presentation that visualizes what lucid dreaming on demand (my phrase) might be like

Life 2.0

What happens as marketing gets truly interactive?

More thoughts from SXSW on emerging media and its implications. The next wave of innovation will almost certainly happen as "the internet leaves the internet" said Patrick Moorhead (Razorfish) during the panel on emerging media innovation during a recession. Mobile devices will play a key role in facilitating this innovation according to Ron Gonda & Juan-Carlos Morales (Sapient) and Ryan Stuart (Adobe) in their panel on trends in mobile technology. My takeaway is these trends are likely to dramatically alter where, how, what and to whom we market products and services in the near future - and, most importantly, why we do it.

Moorhead and co-presenter Daniel Polinchock (Brand Experience Lab) highlighted developments in play today that they predict we won't be able to live without tomorrow. Examples include QR codes placed on clothing that allow you to take a picture and, say, get the Facebook profile of the person wearing the code on his t-shirt. (Sounds like "Personal Social Media Presence Curator" might be a good career opportunity in the near future). Life broadcasting in real time. Ordering and paying for items via RFID tags and cell phones. Visual search and the move toward finding items through image recognition (e.g., on Like.com). You can now take a picture of a logo with your iPhone and the company website appears on your screen.

Morales underscored this in the mobile panel noting that we're "merging the digital world with the physical world, with the phone as the portal." Location-aware cellular technology is able to provide an overlay of historical information as we walk through London, for instance, or about our current location as we use the iPhone as a navigation device while driving. Gonda sees promise in sub-audible frequency information streamed along with the audible sound of, say, dialog in a film that can be picked up by mobile phones and provide backstory to what is appearing on the screen. And these are only a few of the innovations to augment our reality in play right now.

If we're moving toward an augmented reality that enables always-on and everywhere deep access to information, companies, people, products, places and services - and facilitates interacting with them - we're heading into territory that creates an unprecedentedly rich interactive marketplace. So much so, it will up-end how we think about marketing products and services, it blurs the line between personal and commercial and challenges the fundamental structure of the established marketplace.

As Polinchock said of traditional retail, "Physical retail experience has to deliver more than price and product." If retailers don't evolve to compete with applications such as Amazon's iPhone app that allows you to enter a brick and mortar, take a picture, price compare and purchase online, they will become "stupidly expensive websites." To survive, physical stores will have to provide some valuable service or experience that can't easily be found online. In Polinchock's view, it's a matter not of creating just brand awareness, but "brand utility."

As marketplace gets truly interactive, creating brand utility will mean more than providing easy access to context-relevant, valuable information and facilitating transactions. When marketing gets truly interactive I believe it hits escape velocity from the realm of linear transactions and practical utility into the realm of co-creating a story. Polinchock hinted at this by saying people are now searching more for meaning - than possessions, presumably. I'd take that a step further and say that what people are really starting to look for is to be part of a story that resonates with them and provides a satisfying experience. To the extent brands can connect with the marketplace on that level, they will successfully evolve.

Update: Added TED video of reality augmentation working prototype from MIT Media Lab:

SXSW: Minority Report is Real

At South by Southwest Interactive on a wet & chilly Austin day - good time to be inside. Great panel this afternoon on what's coming that might replace the familiar "window, icon, menu, pointing device" user interface (WIMP), as well as how film & sci fi informs tech development - and vice versa.

The panelists Ben Rigby (Mobile Voter), Barrett Fox (COCO Studios) and Jeroen Lapre (distant-galaxy.com) put together a pre-presentation series of blog posts on alternate UIs that are worth checking out. During the presentation they covered several trends in coming design that include the holoprojector (think Princess Leah), holotouch (using 3D space for information visualization), immersive environments like the holodeck, and developing gesture languages that control the UI through direct manipulation.

The change from a "paper & desk" UI metaphor to ones that take fuller advantage of 3D space is more than just a design change. It transforms our relationship to information in a way that begins to erase the experience of being separate from technology - and for that matter begins to animate previously-perceived-as-static objects as well.

One of the panelists suggested that using visual interfaces to directly manipulate information may create more left-brain/right-brain parity, thereby allowing us to develop more of our brainpower. Tim O'Reilly made a complementary suggestion in his Radar post yesterday about Twitter and the social nervous system. During MIT's Media Lab demonstration at TED on wearable tech and developing the sixth sense Pattie Maes makes a similar point. All interesting developments to watch.

Thought Bubbles: CitiMorg, Real dreamcatchers, Crash course, Bailout game

  Thought Bubbles shares bits of news, ideas, links and random scribblings. Feel free to email me your own.

Citigroup + Morgan Stanley = CitiMorg (Gallows humor from the trading floor)

Real dreamcatchers: Japanese scientists create software that can capture dream images (the headline promises more than the actual technology delivers, but it's still a fun idea; or maybe not so fun depending on the vision: Until the End of the World, Paprika or The Cell for starters)

End of money: The Crash Course presents logic backed with stats on why the present economy isn't sustainable (a bit pedantic at times, but a good 101 to share with those who believe the present economy might just be going through a temporary downturn)

And if you're in the mood for a little fun and have some time to waste, play the Bailout Game